Denny Hamlin is winning NASCAR Cup Series races every weekend despite the shoulder injury which likely require surgery one day soon.

The 45-year-old Joe Gibbs Racing superstar was absolutely terrific at Pocono on Sunday as he claimed his third consecutive Cup Series race win, the 64th of his glittering career.

Hamlin is now just 19 points behind early standings leader Tyler Reddick, and driving at the peak of his powers. And he is doing it all by fighting through the pain barrier.

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Denny Hamlin on shoulder injury

Hamlin admitted in February that the shoulder, which required surgery a couple of years ago, had 'retore' and he spoke of the pain and discomfort it gives him, particular out of his car.

"It’s so interesting because it never, never healed from the surgery I had almost a couple years ago now. It never reattached. It just retore right away," he explained.

It didn’t bother me until the week after I stopped racing at Phoenix. Next thing you know, I can’t sleep, I can’t lie on that side. It’s, like, really bugging me. I don’t know if it’s PT is just doing this shit every week, but it’s not bothering me a lot in season."

While the shoulder injury does not give Hamlin too many issues when racing, it does limit him significantly away from the track.

"Now, I am really limited, the things that I do in the gym or extracurricular to not really piss it off. I’ve had to cut back those things."

With retirement currently scheduled for when his JGR contract runs out after the 2027 season, Hamlin must now decide whether to gut it out for another 18 months before going under the knife to fix the injury for good.

Surgery or not, that is the question

"If I knew I could keep it like this, I would just wait till the end of next year and get it fixed versus ruining my off-season.

"He [doctor] said he wanted to get another look at it in a couple weeks just to kind of check the status of it. I can assure you it didn’t fix itself. It does not bother me right now in the car.

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